


Missing You

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, High School, Humanstuck, M/M, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-21
Updated: 2013-08-21
Packaged: 2017-12-24 05:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/935950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave can remember the game, he doesn't miss everything, but he misses one person who gave his life for him...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missing You

**Author's Note:**

> Gifted to Lilly because Lilly is a beautiful gorgeous friend of mine.
> 
> http://archiveofourown.org/users/PaperLillyWebs
> 
> (Plus she ships Davekat!)

It's been over a year since you and your friends had managed to finish the game, you and your _human_ friends that is. The trolls... they weren't god tier and couldn't -- didn't -- survive the final battle. Now, after winning and defeating the game, the eight of you had managed to enter this new universe, an exact replica of your old universe, the beta universe, excluding the fact that Bro was replaced with kid bro, Dirk. No one cared that there were four households containing minors without any adults, not that they could reach Jade and Jake on that island of theirs. You sometimes wonder where the trolls are, what happened to them, if they're alright; there's been no news of aliens with grey skin, horns, yellow eyes and ranging blood colours.

Back in the now, you aren't even paying attention to the teacher who is droning on about algebra or something, nothing you don't know already after having to spend three years on a meteor with just about nothing to do. The only fun you really had was drawing (you can draw fairly well now considering all the practice time you had) and bothering Karkat...

Stupid Karkat, why did he sacrifice himself for you? You could have avoided the attack easily, but he had to be the martyr he is and push you out of the way, taking the brunt of the blast himself.

You can remember kneeling at his side, tears stinging your eyes and causing you to lift your shades from your face to meet his weak gaze. (You don't even realise you had started drawing with your hand, not focusing that much, lost in your thoughts.) You can remember the way he gave you a weak smile, shaky hand patting your shoulder and trying to be as comforting as possible even as you choke on the sobs in your throat, threatening to come up. The feeling of your hands wrapping around his sends a tingling sensation over the places where those fingers touched yours. You didn't have it in you to leave his side, not when his eyes had glazed over, not when his arms and body became limp on the ground, not when his lungs stopped breathing and his heart stopped beating. Rose had to practically drag you away from his corpse when the time came to go to the new universe, her own face wet with tears after losing Kanaya.

When you finally realise that your hand is moving and pull it and the pencil off of the paper, looking down at it you freeze up, throat going dry. The image is a split image of how he looked, cracked lips smiling, body crumpled and bleeding, eyes soft yet still hurt, and you're leaning over him, tears streaming from your eyes as you stare at him, pleading for him not to leave you.

"Dave Strider." You snap your gaze up to the teacher, only just managing to stop your eyes from watering behind your shades. "What is that on your paper?" You realise that other people might be able to see it and pull it to your chest, hiding it from view.

"Nothing." She isn't convinced and starts walking towards your desk, hand held out before her expectantly.

"Then let me see." You clutch the book tighter to your chest, knuckles going white.

"No." She looks surprised, only for a second, then she just looks pissed.

"Just hand it over."

"No." You repeat and before you could react, she's snatched it out of your grasp. "No!" She steps back and your outstretched arms can do nothing and you drop them back onto your desk, glaring daggers at the woman as she raises an eyebrow at the picture before turning it back to show you, the people behind you seeing as well.

"Why did you draw this?" You scowl a bit more, jaw gritted tight before you manage to get enough self-control to unlock it to speak.

"It's kind of hard to forget the moment in time when your close friend is killed." The class is dead silent and you continue to glare at the teacher who is still staring at you, probably trying to decide whether to believe you or not.

"And who was this person?" She wants to prove you wrong, you can just tell.

"You won't know him..." You can see her face turning smug like she's won the war, like hell she has. "Karkat Vantas." Now she is just staring at you in... confusion? "Now give it back." She stares you down for a few more moments before taking hold of the book in both hands and tearing the page out. You grit your teeth together, fighting back the instinct to scream at her, or shout maybe, do _something_ to let out your anger, but you just clench your fists under the table. The loud _thwack_ of the book on your desk doesn't even make you flinch.

"You use your book for _school work_ , not drawing." You glower at the book, not even looking at the teacher as she returns to the front to continue the lesson. Without the teacher noticing, you slip out a small blank notebook, placing it on top of your school work and bringing out a few coloured pencils from the case on your desk. If the images of your past life are stuck in your head it might be best to draw them all down on paper, people might think you're crazy, your friends and relatives do considering that no one else but you can remember, at least none of the humans. If the trolls were alive... who knows?

* * *

By the time lunch came you had finished the drawings of you and your friends, the beta kids, in their god tier and multiple other outfits, coloured and outlined correctly. The ringing of the bell drags you out of your memories and you quickly stuff your utensils into their respective places before rushing out of class, you just needed a break to think, or to draw some more, maybe both. But any ways you soon find yourself skipping going to the cafeteria in favour of sitting under the large oak tree outside.

The sound of a car arriving in the parking lot isn't exactly a new sound, but you look up anyway to see an expensive silver Prius, an 86 if you're not mistaken. You see a small hooded figure step out of the passenger seat, their face unseen but you can guess it's a new student. But what really has you watching as he walks his way towards the school building is not the strangeness he posses with his hunched over back and hands in his pockets, it's his familiarity like you've seen him before.

You shake the feeling off once he's gone out of sight, returning to your drawings and sketches until the bell rings again for the end of lunch.

* * *

The stalls of the change rooms are being painted, you note as you look at the caution tape crossed over it, not touching the surface of the shining cream texture. Your lips press firmly together as you look around at the other male kids getting changed into their physical education clothes. It looks like you’re gonna have to change out here with everyone else today…

You dump your bag on the bench next to the others in the middle of the room, you wish there was another place to change than right in the middle of everyone but there isn’t and you just suck it up. With your clothes out and ready you plan on making this quick but your shirt gets half stuck over your head and it takes longer. Even as you get it off you can tell that nearly everyone is looking at you, or more specifically, your white scar littered skin.

A hand tapping on your shoulder has you snapping around to see a fairly small boy looking at you, slightly frightened, who wouldn’t be of a boy with this many scars on his body?

“Uh… um… how did you get those… scars?” You look down at yourself, chewing the inside of your lip in secret before you decide to just tell him.

“My older brother and I used to sword fight all the time, he sometimes would slip up.” You point to the scars as you label them. “Bro, bro, got that from some glass, bro, bro, bro, some dog bit me, I was messing ‘round with a knife, cut myself accidentally…” You avoid a scar the shape of bite marks. “Something got its claws into me, a shard of metal got under my skin and I had to get it cut out by a much unpractised surgeon… I’d rather not talk about the others…” The boy points to a fairly large scar along your abdomen.

“How’d you get that?” You visibly cringe.

“A friend and I were practising, it was an accident, and he looked after it afterwards.” He points to the bite mark. “Same guy.” He points to another scar. “It’s the same god damned person, just leave it at that! I don’t want to talk about it…” You pull your shirt over your head, quickly changing pants as well.

“…was it Karkat…?” You run out of the change rooms before you could let anyone see the tears leaking from beneath your shades.

* * *

You're already boring yourself with your thoughts before the teacher even began to talk, soon ignoring her all together and returning to your drawings, making sure to keep them out of sight this time.

A knock on the door attracts your attention, the principal, of all people, standing there and beckoning the teacher over. You watch as she excuses herself to speak to him, hushed whispers being traded for a few seconds and she glances behind him before returning to the front of the classroom to address you all.

"We have a new student today." Oh great, you wonder what poor soul has been sent to be tortured in this hell hole. It's probably the boy you saw at lunch. "Please do treat him well." So it is definitely a boy.

He steps into class and you freeze up, staring at him as he looks around class before bright crimson eyes stop dead on you, almost looking afraid. The mass of dark brown on his head so different yet so familiar, and you roughly push yourself to your feet even as he freezes, tensing, staring in shock, but you can see the flicker of surprise and joy and glee and happiness that he never wore as a troll. It has to be him, it has to be, the way his face looks, his posture, how he reacts, and it has to be him.

"You... you..." You can't even speak properly and everyone is looking between the two of you, he can't even speak properly either, mouth opening and closing. You shake your head, clearing your mind enough to stare at him. "You complete utter _asshole!_ ” You grab the drink bottle from your bag and throw it at him, ignoring the teacher and principal telling you to stop. Karkat avoids the bottle, staring at it on the floor then glowering at you.

“Why the hell am _I_ the asshole, shit bag?” He drops his bag down onto the floor, narrowly avoiding a dictionary you toss at him.

“Because you don’t fucking _think_ before you _do_ things!” He just about hisses at that, picking up the bottle and throwing it back at you. You avoid it, leaving your table and moving to the front of the class, the teacher and principal still trying to stop the two of you. You’re not even really trying to hurt each other, just trying to make a point.

“Oh well so _-rry_ that I was _thoughtful_ enough to try and prove my worth! You need to realise it isn’t all about _you_ all the time!” Your lips press firmly together. You’re still trying to decide whether or not to smile or scowl or scream or laugh or—there are just too many emotions running through you right now.

You’re tempted to throw a chair at him but opt for the black board duster. He catches it unsurprisingly. “You didn’t have to do _anything_ to prove yourself! Everyone who was alive _still respected you!_ I did too, _especially_ me!” He falters for a moment before throwing the duster back at you. You avoid it.

“You’re just saying that! I helped you! I was worth something! I did something good for once!”

“You did _more_ than just one thing, idiot!” You hiss back, choosing to throw pieces of chalk, making it harder for him to avoid them, getting bits of green on his arm, yellow on his leg, blue on his hair. “You didn’t have to fucking _be_ a hero because you already were one and it was just _pointless!_ Tell me, what did that achieve?!”

He is growling lightly, just like he did as a troll. “It saved you—”

“I didn’t _need_ saving, I was a fucking god, I wouldn’t have died! Unlike you!” He winces, not even trying to avoid a piece of purple chalk from hitting his chest. You think he’s all out of steam but then he gets all defensive again, picking up his pencil case and beginning to throw the pencils from inside at you. They aren’t too sharp so they don’t hurt that much and he doesn’t go for the face.

“It was _instinct!_ I thought you were going to _die_ and I did what I could to _avoid that!_ ” You swat a couple of the pencils away, throwing the empty box of crayons at him.

“You got yourself _killed!_ How is that _better?!_ ”

“ _I don’t know!_ ”

“ _Yes you do know! You just don’t want to admit to it!_ ”

“ _NO I DON’T WANT TO!_ ”

“ _BECAUSE YOU’RE A STUPID COWARD WHO CAN’T THINK OF HIMSELF BEING WORTH A SINGLE PENNY!_ ” He just screams back at you, you scream in return. It’s just a screaming match, you don’t know what to say, you can’t think of anything to say or what more to do.

Your voices die at about the same time a minute later. You both glower at each other, ignoring the students, ignoring the teacher and principal, ignoring the curious kids and teachers at the door wondering what is going on. You just glower at each other until the two adults in the class step between you both. The teacher is clearly very cross with you as she stands before you, saying something harsh but you try to peer around her at Karkat who is doing the same around the principal.

You eventually find you’ve had enough and push her out of the way, surprising everyone. You walk forward, pushing the principal away, and tackle Karkat into your arms. He lets out a squeak before you both fall to the ground, somehow avoiding hitting your heads on the cold linoleum.

“I thought you were gone…” You whisper hoarsely and he just hugs you back, talking in an equally raspy voice,

“Good to see you too.”


End file.
